Raid-affected Kibaki community celebrates 1st year of temple consecration
Met. Meletiy visited the UOC community in the Bukovina village of Kibaki where a year ago he consecrated a church built to replace the one seized by the schismatics.
On July 13, on the day of commemoration of the Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-Praised Twelve Apostles, Metropolitan Meletiy (Yegorenko) of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna performed a festive divine service on the occasion of the anniversary of the consecration of the new church of the UOC community that suffered from the raiding by the Kyiv Patriarchate, reports the Chernivtsi-Bukovina Eparchy on the Facebook page.
Before the service, the believers warmly greeted the bishop, who consecrated their church a year ago.
“Today we have the opportunity to glorify the holy apostles together, pray together and ask God that through the prayers of the holy apostles the Lord would strengthen our apostolic faith, help us to be faithful to those covenants and laws to which our ancestors were faithful,” Vladyka Meletiy said at the meeting.
Then the bishop celebrated the Liturgy in the Intercession Church. The Metropolitan was concelebrated by the rector of the church, Father Vitaly Yarema, and the clergy of the eparchy.
Six years ago, after the death of the rector, priest John Stolyar, part of the village went into schism in the non-canonical UOC-KP, but some of the believers remained faithful to the UOC, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. They had to go to pray in neighbouring villages.
Then the believers began building a new church. The schismatics were aggressive and obstructed the believers of the UOC: they filled in trenches for the foundation and smashed the foundation with hammers. Despite all the obstacles, the temple was built and consecrated on July 13, 2020.
Как сообщал СПЖ, архиепископ Нафанаил освятил храм пострадавшей от рейдеров общины в Бронице.
